Published in the Summer 2005 401 Richmond Update
On page four of any issue of PREFIX Photo magazine (Studio 124), there stands a list of awards received in the last six months - the current issue numbers an impressive fourteen. These awards, granted for a range of achievements in art direction, photography, and writing, tell a story of meticulous crafting recognized by variety of groups both locally and internationally. Editor/Publisher Scott McLeodhas cultivated a visually stunning and theoretically stimulating publication that is one of a mere handful of photography publications in Canada, and the only one with a national mandate. Scott fashioned a forum for Canadian photographic explorations by identifying a need, and mixing it with a healthy dose of vision and determination.
Scott explains that, “as a Canadian photographer, I recognized that through the 90’s there were very few print forums for our work and among photographers in the community the phrase -wouldn’t it be great if there was a photography magazine that Canadian photographers in English Canada could realistically expect to be published in - would crop up at regular intervals. It was a need that I always recognized was there, and one day I just decided I should take it upon myself to launch a magazine.” But instead of settling for a successful magazine, Scott continued to push toward new horizons and founded the Prefix Institute for Contemporary Art, an exhibition space and audio art gallery that is also home to the magazine production studio.
Scott’s journey has weaved its way through the 401 Richmond community. After graduating from RyersonPolytechnicUniversity Scott got involved with artist-run culture in Toronto and became a member of Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography (Studio 120). After sitting on the planning committee formed to organize Gallery 44’s move to 401 Richmond, Scott joined the staff in 1996. He began to seriously imagine the possibility of producing a photography magazine and would meet regularly with Petra Chevrier (who at the time was the Editor of Fuse Magazine (Studio 454) and is now the Executive Director of the Images Festival (Studio 448)) and was given a crash course on the magazine industry.
Scott launched the magazine in 2000 from a small studio space he shared with Gwendolyne Hats (Studio 433) with the design expertise of Petra Chevrier and the invaluable assistance of Milada Kovacova (Trinity Square Video, Studio 376), a national advisory council, and numerous friends and colleagues, including Laurie Davis, Dana Samuel, and Amy Salterthwaite. Prefix soon took on a slightly larger space on the second floor. These first homes are a far cry from the new gound floor gallery space that Prefix renovated in 2003, making a significant step in the evolution of the magazine. “The changes happened gradually. There was always a vision for what Prefix could be, and bit by bit certain things happened that sort of ensured it would have some stability and longevity. We got more advertisers, we got more subscribers and public-funding agencies, which came on board with operating grants very early on, continued to support us.” Prefix had been, and continues to be, involved with the annual CONTACT photography festival to promote the visibility of the magazine and as Scott suggests: “in a way it seemed like a natural progression to expand that into year round programming.”
Like the magazine, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art is one-of-a-kind. The institute (which now includes Advertising Sales Manager, Chandra Bulucon - who also has her own sound production company, Puppy Machine Productions in Studio 399, Operations Manager Olivia Tsang, and Communications Manager, Sarah Robayo Sheridan) almost immediately secured a place in the Toronto gallery scene. The gallery space and the magazine are a unique pairing that, as far as Scott knows, doesn’t exist anywhere else. The two operations are administratively and thematically independent, but clearly influence and inform each other on many levels.
“In Toronto there’s a lot of value placed on exhibiting, and for good reason. Prefix’s exhibition program is great for the visibility of our organization within the city. But behind the scenes, Prefix Photo magazine is a small, discreet object that gets send out into the world while exhibitions may come and go, Prefix Photo travels outside of the city limits and remains. Compared with an exhibition, the visibility of the magazine affords an artist is incalculable. I still think of the magazine as our flagship operation. Attention is also paid to extending the life of the magazine by producing a truly high-quality publication. In part, this is expected of photographic publications and the photography portfolio magazine as a genre. But it is also extremely important to Scott that Prefix is a durable book-quality publication that will stand the test of time and sustain itself in private and public collections.
It is as if, at each step of the way Scott’s efforts have been acknowledged and applauded by the publishing and arts community, adding fuel to the fire of his vision and encouraging him to continue developing new ideas. Although Scott didn’t want to make any promises, he did suggest that the future would likely hold forays into book publishing and confirmed that Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art would move forward with a speaker’s series in the fall of 2005.
You can find issue 11 of Prefix Photo Magazine titled, Everywhere Signs on newsstands.
Left to right: Chandra Bulucon, Advertising Sales Manager, Scott McLeod, Editor/Purblisher, Sarah Robayo Sheridan, Communications Manager, Olivia Tsang, Operations Manager,
